Posted on by Jón Frímann

Small glacier flood from Mýrdalsjökull glacier (Katla volcano)

During the night (and when I had unstable power) there was a small glacier flood from Mýrdalsjökull volcano. Some minor harmonic tremor change was detected following this glacier flood. This even was small one, many times smaller then what did happen on the 8 to 9 July 2011. Due to security concerns the Civil Emergency Authority did close the main road in Iceland for this area. Since they never know how big the flood can actually be. The main road was closed for about one hour. This glacier flood was detected around midnight 20 to 21 July 2011.

This flood is actually so small it is hard to see it on the harmonic tremor plot from the SIL stations around Katla volcano.


Tremor plot from 07:50 UTC this morning. It is hard to see the harmonic tremor from this minor glacier flood. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.


Tremor plot from 07:50 UTC this morning. It is hard to see the harmonic tremor from this minor glacier flood. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.


Tremor plot from 07:50 UTC this morning. It is hard to see the harmonic tremor from this minor glacier flood. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

What happens next is impossible to know for now. But it seems that activity continues to be high in Katla volcano. All that can be done is to wait and see what happens. But I am going to continue to monitor the changes in Katla volcano as best that I can do until I finish my summer job (29. July).

Icelandic News about this.

Aukin leiðni í Múlakvísl og órói í Mýrdalsjökli (Vísir.is, Icelandic)
Náið fylgst með Mýrdalsjökli (mbl.is, Icelandic)
Hringvegurinn opinn á ný (Rúv.is, Icelandic)
Breytingar í Múlakvísl (Rúv.is, Icelandic)

425 Replies to “Small glacier flood from Mýrdalsjökull glacier (Katla volcano)”

  2. (see older comments) I mean the side of the glacier close to measuring station 413

  4. Hi all

    I think its important for all on the blog ( and many professional scientists ) to remember that the our (human) understanding of the processes controlling the geosphere’s processes, especially in relation to the inner workings of the planet, tectonics, seismicity and volcanology are very poor. Much that is said to be fact is actually agreed upon speculation based on mathematical modelling. These are very young sciences and our understanding of them is at best minimal with much still vehemently argued over, even at peer reviewed level. However we are getting far better at monitoring/recording current data and interpreting historical data. Open minded discussion and research is essential in these fields and should not be based on economic bias or the agenda’s of financial institutions.

    There is an idea that several respected people I know and I share. I would like to put this idea to people on the forum but its needs some background as it is on the edge of current scientific understanding. It could also explain several recent geological events and more specifically the amount of them. Please understand this is an IDEA and at best speculation in a scientific way. Please anyone that wants to think of it as 2012 stuff its NOT its geology, I say to scaremongers and tabloids get a life!! I also invite constructive criticism in anyway.

    The geosphere is active place with obvious signs of activity such as volcano’s and earthquakes and less obvious such as the movement of the ten or so tectonic plates. This movement and activity is fuelled by the internal heat of the earth (geosphere). There are several sources of this heat but mainly, primordial heat, this is heat remaining from the initial creation of the biosphere and by far the larger, the heat continually produced by the radioactive decay of some elements such as potassium thorium and uranium.

    At this point to give an understanding of the science of what is known I would ask anyone interested to read these links, they are informative and relatively easy to digest.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomagnetic_reversal

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantle_plume

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamo_theory

    http://geomag.usgs.gov/faqs.php

    Recently its appears there has been a marked increase in geological activity. Which has/is being discussed various reasons have been put forward for this including ‘technology creep’. I agree these all have there place but would argue that this far more applicable to the lower range of events. Larger earthquakes and eruptions,(especially) in populated areas have been well documented for over a thousand years and are on the increase. It is well none these activities go in cycles. The question is what drives the cycles and how much do the cycles vary. There are now several indicators pointing to a possible change in the earth’s magnetic field. People wanting to know if there washing machine will turn the other way should go somewhere else! There are issues of concern over this but these are not relevant in this forum and also these events are likely to be hundreds/thousands of years away.

    IF there is the beginnings of a change in the EMF (earths magnetic field). What drives it.

    Everything I have so far studied suggests a change in the dynamics of the inner and outer core (very simply put) and this would lead to a change in the associated dynamics of the plate tectonics. Ie changes in speed, direction (velocity) and activity.

    Sorry for the long post (again)

    1. Gradual rises like that = just the weather.

      You can see the wind messing with Jon’s geophone too.

    2. What you see depends on when you look at that dynamic, ever-changing link.

      At this moment in time, I see a marked rise in low frequency component, which is most characteristic frequency for lava movement, among other things … and it is exceeding its highest reading from 10 days ago.

      And by the way, I have never seen a good explanation here or anywhere on how “harmonic tremor” is unambiguously identified on these simplistic 3-channel frequency charts. So that would make a great topic in itself.

  7. It is really really windy today in South Iceland and, guess what, lots of ash blowing in the air.

    In Hverargerdi there is a thick fog, from the ash blown there from the east, ash from Grimsvotn’s last eruption. Because it is dry weather and very windy.

    So expect tremors to be affected by that. Tomorrow it is going to finally be rainy, if the forecast turns to be correct.

    1. The fact is that, just 50.000 years ago, the small island of El Hierro was the site of one of the most violent and devastating natural phenomena known to man: a landslide of gigantic proportions.

      In just a few seconds, probably brought on by an earth tremor, a large piece of the island broke off and slid slowly into the ocean. Like a huge wound, the impressive El Golfo Valley amphitheatre suddenly appeared. It is difficult for us to imagine a landslide involving over 300 km3, a hundred times the volume of the St. Helens volcano. It is believed that the “tsunami” produced by the landslide must have been over 300 feet high, and its effects were probably felt on the American coast.[/i]

      http://www.elhierro.travel/elhierro/index.php?accion=articulo&IdArticulo=31&IdSeccion=34

      2. How often does that update? I don’t see any new quakes for El Hierro there since 11:39:16 GMT.

      3. Don’t know … my spanish is non existent, have tried reloading but no change. Suppose if I was suspecting a conspiracy I would think that they had stopped adding events…

      1. A link to where you copied that post from Luis, is basic internet courtesy.

  9. I am going to post something tomorrow or later tonight. Currently I am rather busy as there is a small town festival going on in my town. I have also been helping volunteers from Seeds (http://www.seeds.is/) if they any help or have questions.

    Blog posting is going to more or less normal from 29. July 2011. But I quit my summer job at that time.

  12. Maybe a stupid question, but all the activity on Jon’s geophone, is it only caused by the weather? It has been increasing for about 10 hours now.

    1. It’s wind noise, there is a link at the bottom of the geophone page to current wind conditions.

      1. Thank you gandalf1, I’ll try to see the connection between both during the coming hour.

    1. There seems to be a lot of hype, and confusion between the different Islands. Las Palmas is the one that is being hyped, but El Hierro is where the original rockfall was, wasn’t it?

    1. @Tony: And I quote gandalf1:

      “Gradual rises like that = just the weather.” 🙂

  15. I see that in all seasons there is a pronounced peak sil more in Myrdalsjokull
    I do not see any earthquake in the last hour, when I look more remote stations of Myrdalsjokull Sil lower the peak could be an earthquake outside of Iceland?

    1. I’m not sure, earthquakes originating outside of Iceland that cause tremor spikes would normally leave some evidence on the webcorders. These might be a spike, could be very wrong though.

  16. There seems to have been a strong low period earthquake in Katla volcano. It is not on the automatic earthquake list. I do not know why. But it also seems to be followed by a harmonic tremor pulse that seems to be growing at the moment.

    1. No I am not able to see an increase in harmonic tremors, but if I see a higher peak at all frequencies but in the hekla helicorder is not

      1. It is hard to see this type of event on my helicorder when there is wind taking place at the same time.

        I did look for it. But I did not find it, as it was lost in the wind noise until I get a better time on when this happened.

      2. Gracias, pero me tiene intrigado, en la pagina de http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/hekla/borholu_thensla.html se ve claramente casi 70, en la estaciones de sil en varias es muy claro , en GOD llega a final de escala 8000, estos picos en el Helicorder de Hekla normalmente lo habia visto con un señal mas alta que el ruido que hay ahora por el viento, todo esto por curiosidad de donde puede venir este evento
        Muchas gracias a todos

      3. Thanks, but I have intrigued the http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/hekla/borholu_thensla.html page is clearly about 70 in the wild in several stations is very clear, GOD reaches final scale 8000, these peaks in Helicorder of Hekla had normally seen with a highest signal to noise out there now by the wind, this curious where this event can come
        Thank you very much to all

    2. I was just wondering if the Icelandic Met Office plots were showing a proper harmonic spike rather than an earthquake spike, but I wanted to wait until the next update of the charts to be sure. I came here to see if anyone had commented, and I see that you have beaten me to it, Jon. I have learnt something from being here – thank you! 🙂

  17. I agree there has been an event that has been masked by the simultaneous rise in background noise.

    If you look here – http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/Katla/god_trem.gif

    you can see that 0.5 – 1.0 HZ is greatly affected by background noise, whereas the blue and green lines show barely any increase when there is high winds for example. However in recent hours the blue and green lines have risen markedly above what they have been in recent days.

    I an no expert, but all I know the blue and green lines have not been this high since the “recent failed eruption”

    1. I believe its the blue & green that are most influenced by weather and other local stuff, the red is most likely to me magma or similiar.

  18. Looks like it has dropped back to background levels again after the spike, I dont see increasing tremor on the latest update.

    1. Nor me, still weath keeping an eye on for a bit, but unfortunately time for bed.

  22. No earthquakes for anywhere in Iceland for 3+ hours on the IMO page, maybe quakes are not being added at the moment and thats why its not showing up.

      1. It could be that they disabled the automatic location system as it was giving too many false alarms due to the weather. In such case a manual review of each earthquake (or EQ alarm) occurred in necesary.

  23. Tremors definitively on the rise but they seem related to weather. Yet I am not sure.

    The weather was very windy and ashy this afternoon, but as of now is calm again. It’s not only stations around Katla that show this, but also in southwestern Iceland. I think this is only noise from the wind.

    1. Earthquakes have not stopped, I belive, the wind is still strong in south-west of Iceland and this probably “drowns” most of them (thus on tremor plots the red and green spectrum will stay high next day, but blue will subside first) but the spike on God around 22:22 is very interesting. That high an “normal earthquake” must be over 3.0 or 4.0 (???) but yet it dies down very quickly to north, east, and south-west, but stays higher to north-west (thats downwind tonight btw). Around that time I heard two or three distant sound or rumble, similar to thunder (but it was not like normal Thunder and the IMO Lightning map does not show any!) but could not make out what it was, neither could my wife.

      1. If it were an M3.0 it would have been quite visible on Jon’s helicorder despite the wind, in my opinion.

  25. Hmmm, interesting, could it be some kind of big ice collapse at the glacier?

    1. No, I am in Reykjavík, much too far away for such, I guess. Unfortunately I did not note the time (some time before 22:50, as that time I looked at IMO website but saw – nothing – only much later the god HT spike was up) ;-(

      2. Thanks. Something brewing there !? Steam-pressure or old magma in Fimmvörðuháls channels (cooling down), or some new-stuff on way up? Interesting location.

      3. Thanks. I found the earthquake in my time data. It appears to be from Goðabunga by the shape of the earthquake wave.

        But that is just a guess that I am making here.

      4. IMO’s info on this one so far is interesting, both the quality of the quake and the strength, the latter just makes me scratch my head, didn’t expect lowering 2,6R to 0,7R

        23.07.2011 at 22:22:47 lat 63,639 long -19,325 Depth 1,1 km 0,7 R Quality 60,95 at location 3,7 km V af Goðabungu

  29. @ Brenda
    Yayy! Congratulations! I saw the sheep this morning too! You can always tell when things are quiet. Either the very brainy ones are testing plots and theories or people like me are just relaxing and studying……. whatever comes into View!
    <<<<< Gives GeoLoco a hard stare and dares him to make a comment!

    1. @Diana – TYVM – I was always envious of catching sight of the sheep. <> I’ve earned a guilt-free right to stare at sheep. I did my share of charts, graphs, pensions, investments (50 mil) and working with actuaries til I couldn’t sleep. Thank God I came to my senses and retired!!

      Thanks to all who do create the charts, provide links and share knowledge with the rest of us. I do appreciate being able to learn more all the time on this blog and great thanks to Jon!!

  30. Katla looking a bit strange. Bobbing ground cloud and ground but only on the right hand side. Probably the rain drops on cam making the view distorted. It’s gone and the camera is stilled in the time it took me to type that.

  31. Concerning the spike last night 2222UTC it has been updated now as a 0.7 ML quake near Godabunga. That seems strange. I have been using the data from website http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/alert in my earth location program and found the location really to be near Godabunga but with the registered PVA the magnitude should be around 2.7. The period of the waves seems to be rather long and suspect there are two events with 10-20 sec apart making them difficult to locate. Would really like to see the wave forms. Is that possible to download, anyone?

    1. yep noticed that can’t even see as far as you hand infront of your face over there now probably.

      1. Wind currently 25 m/sec at Landeyjarhöfn where the ferry should leave for Vestmannaeyjar. It is supposed to subside later today (time now little past noon, 12;40)

    1. My thought is that it is not inflation but a blip that may possibly show a return of inflation, but I doubt it, especially not at the rate the blip would indicate.

      But there has been inflation going on at one area, Norris, for 5 years, slowly but consistantly …

      http://pboweb.unavco.org/shared/scripts/stations/?checkkey=nrwy&sec=timeseries_plots&timeseries=clean

      My interpretation of that is that in the mid and late 2000’s Yellowstone magma was pushing up and inflating the main area of Yellowstone, particularly the domes at Mallard and Sour Creek, making trails too hot to walk on and causing some concern. Then in 2009, magma broke a path to areas more north, near Norris, and as magma diverted to those more northerly areas, the domes at Mallard and Sour Creek came crashing down in deflation … but Norrris continued to inflate, to this day.

      According to that hypothetical scenario, soon the new areas to the north will fill and then magmatic pressure will build again under the Mallard and Sour Creek dome areas (including Hayden, Old Faithful, White Lake, Yellowstone Lake, etc areas).

      Then, of course, there will be earthquake swarms, buffalo stampedes will be seen on the web cams, politicians and vulcanologists will swear it is completely normal and perfectly safe, and it will blow up in a supervolcano, sending the Dow Jones down 90%, oil down 90% to $10 per barrel and food up 400 to 800% … 😉

      1. ummm ! you wouldn’t have a date on that would you? always fancied dabling in stocks and shares lol 🙂

  36. @Pieter According to the July 1, 2011 YVO status report, the new inflation appears to be seasonal deformation from ground water changes.

    http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/yvo/activity/

    Ground Deformation Summary: The period of caldera uplift that began in 2004 ended over one year ago. Since then, the caldera has been subsiding, though seasonal deformation from ground water changes may temporarily mask the trend. Please see: http://www.uusatrg.utah.edu/ts_ysrp.html for a map of GPS stations in the Yellowstone vicinity. For a graph of daily GPS positions at White Lake, within the Yellowstone caldera, please see: http://pboweb.unavco.org/shared/scripts/stations/?checkkey=WLWY&sec=timeseries_plots�eries=raw.

    1. I have a hard time understanding why, whenever anyone brings up yellowstone, here or on other blogs, the only responses are the standard spiel from the YVO. Any other volcano gets analyzed to death by volcano bloggers but yellowstone seems to be off limits for discussion. I am not sure what is happening at the park but the inflation doesn’t look seasonal at all. I think the fear of yellowstone stops analysis and discussion about it.

      1. If the short term trend continues unaffected for a few more months, it will be worth of extensive investigation. For now it just appears to be within known errors and seasonal variations. Seismic activity on the park is also quite calm. Look at past years in the GPS deformation timeseries for similar bumps that didn’t result in eruptive events.

      2. The ground level at Yellowstone varies in different periods ranging from days to months to years to decades. The “normal” range can be of the order of one meter or in some places even more.

        If Yellowstone is heading for an eruption, weäll see inflation of several metres and numerous earthquakes before that. So, let’s sleep & breathe well, as Yellowstone too is still sleeping & breathing.

      3. Plus, those earthquakes likely would be quite strong… not the typical 3-4’s most swarms have over there.

      4. Wait, it’s not that on Yellowstone a full scale caldera forming eruption would necessarily take place. Smaller ones are possible and even more probable too.

      5. Sorry for boring you with the standard spiel, but I did provide a link to the most recent report. The report said, very succinctly and without a doubt, what’s going on at Yellowstone, without chewing it up and spitting it out in different words. That would be ’nuff said, in my opinion, inasmuch as there are so many volcanoes that are currently vigorously active.

      6. I wasn’t saying it is building toward an eruption at all. That report you referenced is a blanket statement that hasn’t changed for months. If thier were changes they probably wouldn’t get shown in this report for quite sometime. My comment wasn’t a shot at you just an observation about the communities reluctance to speak about Yellowstone. Sorry if I offended.

      7. Well, thanks for that. One thing I know for sure without a geology-type degree – Yellowstone isn’t in Iceland!! LOL

  37. Sunday
    24.07.2011 16:20:25 63.669 -19.116 0.1 km 1.8 99.0 7.3 km ENE of Goðabunga

  39. @maynard @mitch

    There a topics that people dont want to discuss, its sad but true.

    Its shocking them to talk about it, also there are things they cant change, if it happens it happens, it makes no sense to talk about such things.

    There are global problems that should be talked about, but thats the same like the magnetic twist (yes its building up to it, yes it will happen, if in our lifespan is a big question-mark).
    But the difference is that a lot of our global problems are things we could change, if we would stand up for our rights against this green-washing-capitalism (buy a pair of shoes and we will spend on pair for poor children or buy our products and we will do good with your money e.g. starbucks still the largest coffee fabric but still there are working children on their plants ).

    But thats again a topic about fear, we would need to change our life style, but the sad thing is that the ppl leading this economy are one step infront of the mindset of these people.
    Chief of money said along time ago.
    Yes there is a war of classes, but my class the rich will win it.

    No reaction of the people they dont want to hear it, that would bring them in trouble.
    See 9/11 the facts are clear (10 min all official claims in eng http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8En6Ag8y77M from a german author), but do you see a reaction ?

    Same was Jons reaction about the found from scientist that there is isotope release before/while a earthquake happens its a new found a new clue to get a hint how all works, his reaction = no no no cant be what shouldnt be, we are humans that live in a world full of mystery that will never understand a thing.

    Look up how long we are using graphite as a main product for a lot of thing (like nuclear reactor and bombs), still it became it noble price finally this year.
    They held a lot of knowledge back, but hey the changes of this world are too fast (speeding up) for the ones in charge, you can see it everyday.

    The question is will the critical mass for a peaceful revolution build up in europe before all things are in place or will we wake up in a sad world.

    To have fear is okay, but dont let you drive by it.

    1. Thanks again Jon, for giving me the right to say these things.

      I know why i visit this blog regular.
      There are not many source i trust like this one here.

      1. Hi sorter, its always very nice to hear about different perspectives and theories. What is the story about the isotope release? I do not know about it.

    2. You dont have to discuss them here on an Icelandic volcano site. Go and find a more appropriate forum. There are lots for that but this is not one of them.

      1. see thats what i mean, if there are places where its forbitten to talk but global problems,
        they want their safe spot, so they dont have to think about problems that touches them.

      2. This blog is Jon’s blog, and he has officially stated, that he will delete content violating the purpose of the blog (discussion about Icelandic volcanoes and earthquakes).

    3. This is no place for this type of nonsense (the youtube video). This is a place for facts and figures about Icelandic volcanism.

      I have other blog for other topics, you can find it here, http://www.jonfr.com

      But it mostly in Icelandic, there are few English blog posts there. But not many.

      But I do not and never am going to tolerate claims that have been proven to be wrong, misleading or just made up. It is all to common to see that in discussions.

      It also happens here too when speaking about Icelandic volcanoes.

      1. hehe, fine fine, thought because the comment waited such a long time you accepted it. (see the logic behind my replay)

        about the video, sadly thats the official facts (or do you say US is lying 🙂 hihi ) and not made up and even not proved to be wrong, it just shows for what they are capable of.

        I know after having a blog such a long time, is frustrating to repeat your self over and over, but when ppl like mitch join in, im happy to give them a hand, because it doesnt help to life in fear and it doesnt help to talk about yellowstone when there is no possible way to do something against things if they happen.

        about the isotopes i think we will see it in our lifespan that, that was a good hint its not the finally clue, but its like the elephants and the tsunami there are things humans cant feel and there are more possibilities we havnt thought about yet. But i dont think we will know the exact time it will happen, but like LA we will get closer to know when the chances get higher for an event.

      2. Jon,

        Actually it has been known for a long time, that releases of certain isotopes can provide hints or clues for a coming earthquake or volcanic eruption. see e.g. this IAEA paper from 1991: http://www-naweb.iaea.org/napc/ih/documents/TECDOCS/TECDOC%200726%20Geochemical%20precursors%20of%20earthquakes%20and%20volcanic%20eruptions.PDF

        However, after that paper the situation has not advanced much. All we know is that they may provide hints of a coming event, but these hinys can not certainly be used for forecasting and/or predicting a coming event. Why, because other natural phenomena affect the releases, too!

  40. No, this is our ‘spot’ – well, Jon’s spot – for us to talk about Icelandic volcanism.

    If you don’t want to talk about that, leave. If you want to talk about ‘global problems’ there are approximately 58,000 other places we can do so. Do it there, not here.

    Mike

  41. I have to agree with the others. I normally just lurk here. I find this blog to be interesting and enlightening. But this is a blog about icelandic volcanism. There are plenty of other places to blog about yellowstone paranoia, or conspiracy theories, or whatever else you want to talk about. I have little desire to wade through long off topic comments to read what I am clicking here to read.

  42. Treacleminer & Fireman my sentiments entirely! This may be irrelevant however, but does atmospheric pressure affect SIL monitors, ie are the general rises seen across southern Iceland low-pressure related (as similarly confined groundwater can be atmospheric pressure affected – “barometric efficiency”); also are some of the shallow, weaker events a result of ice melt load release on the underlying bedrock?

  43. I guess my question was answered by sorter, it brings out the crazies. sorry if I was off topic but other volcanoes around the world are readily mentioned here. My bad.

    1. no problem.
      Its just that yellow is mentioned every 2nd month by a new one, people overreact in such situations.

      and yes sorry again for disturbing the silence.

      But dont forget

      all 5 secounds dies a children because they have no food, even if we could fed twice the population we have now, when we would produce it and dont play with the corps price (Somalia as dry season for 5 years now).

      now lets hope we will get some fireworks for the silence of the souls (without ppl get hurt).

      1. Sorter,
        There are lots of sites where you can follow the descussion about economy and politics, like zerohedge.com for example.

  45. I remember many years ago I saw so many things frighteningly wrong with the world. There were starving populations. There was threat of nuclear war. So many things wrong. I was young and did my protesting. I worked abroad to help educate under privileged children. I fought for women’s equality especially.
    I still care very much and still see so many things wrong. Now I have the wisdom which only comes with age. I realise that I can only do a little to help. However, Everyone’s little bit turns into a very large amount of change, BUT, change is slow . It is now the turn of a new generation to take up all the fights. When I need to speak strongly about these things I go to the relevant web sites or forums, better still, I write letters to newspapers or to my Town’s representative in Parliament!

    Here, thanks to Jon’s Blog I can relax and discuss something I am interested in. For a while I can forget the many cares I have about the world and also family troubles.

    Please have respect for Jon, the owner and creator of this site and take politics and global problems elsewhere as he asks.

    I enjoy the company of the people who post here. I feel honoured to be one of Jon’s guests. Everyone here has concern for the world, but here is a little oasis where one can mix with people of many nationalities in harmony, all with a common interest and for a few minutes a day, relax and forget about other things.

    1. Ok enough s enough please ! We have no time for “rants” and views that have sod all to do with Icelandic Geology.
      Im sure “god like productions” blog would love you

  47. Hi All

    @sorter while I respect everyone’s view’s but I think you are abusing Jon and the other uses of this blog. I would disagree with much of what you are saying but would be happy to discuss it, I put search details for my facebook page on an earlier post which you could use or point me to a more applicable forum. But please be clear my interest is in the science on this forum not humanities and your actions have made that all the harder to discuss.

    In that vain I would like to make the reasoning for my earlier post more clear, the earths magnetic field is fact, hence the use of compasses! Global Magnetic Field Reversal is fact, at one point in time there where actually five poles! if anyone who is interested is in doubt please read the links including the USGS one if further information is required I can supply data/information from several earth science and natural science departments. Is it starting to happen now, well that’s up for discussion.

    Relevance to this blog firstly it is widely hypothesised that Iceland sits on a mantle plume.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iceland_plume

    Katla is classed as an intraplate volcano and therefore can be directly affected by mantle plume change.

    If these accepted (peer reviewed and taught at Phd level) hypothesis are correct any change will have a direct impact on the activity in Iceland (currently at its highest in a while). As to Yellowstone it is no more or less relevant than El Hierro or Etna but only if it is about the science (science is not just about reading instruments and other peoples work), my thoughts are they have a place as a side bar, as long as it does not over take the forum. But at the end of the day Jon’s blog Jon’s Rules.

    Gooner that’s not polite!

    1. The idea of a mantle plume under Iceland is highly debated, including at the PhD level.

      http://www.google.com/search?q=iceland+plume+debate

      Particularly note the “Great Plume Debate” web pages.

      I tend to lean toward a plume model, but I can see some validity to many of the strong objections to that hypothesis. It’s very interesting, … and part of what makes Icelandic volcanism so fascinating.

      And the term “interplate volcano” (95% of all volcanoes by some estimates) is somewhat of a confusing misnomer, since all such volcanoes are clearly *on* plates, not between them. So “interplate” = “between plates” is a poor choice for a descriptor; but, if that’s how they defined them, so be it.

      Anyway, Katla being classified as an infraplate Volcano makes sense to me, since it is on a plate … but I’d say that regardless of whether or not a mantle plume was feeding it its magma … and even though it’s almost right on top of a plate boundry.

      1. @TBVH agreed the hypothesis is subject to debate, but the remnant subducted plate model is to my mind only about 20/30% probable where as the mantle plume is more like 60/70% probable and in reality maybe a mixture of both.

        The tectonic placement is complicated but katla is outside the main zones of divergent plate motion.(slide transition of WVZ & EVZ) however has been associated with rifting in EVZ (934 AD Eldgja eruption) and but is classed as intraplate.

        What I’m particularly interested in is the possibility of a deeper chamber (20-40km) feeding Katla and others especially due to the unusually thick crust in the area.

        regards mitch

      2. It makes sense to me that there is a deeper magma chamber as you speculate, and being a common fundamental source for many or all of the SE volcanoes.

        Maybe the even deeper source which is feeding such a magma chamber is a delaminated chunk of crust as pictured on slide 25 of the following link? …
        http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=7&ved=0CEMQFjAG&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dur.ac.uk%2Fg.r.foulger%2FTeaching%2FFrontiers.ppt&ei=41otTtyXCdO00AGv3qzkDg&usg=AFQjCNF1cgt4CAILab2ky22lH8bklXUqOA

        Or maybe the plume as Fonix references below?

        Or maybe mid-ocean plate boundry processes?

      3. I like the idea of a deeper magma chamber as a common source for many of the volcanoes in SE Iceland.

        But what is replenishing and pressurizing the chamber?

        Could be delamination as shown on slide 25 of the following link:
        http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=7&ved=0CEMQFjAG&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dur.ac.uk%2Fg.r.foulger%2FTeaching%2FFrontiers.ppt&ei=41otTtyXCdO00AGv3qzkDg&usg=AFQjCNF1cgt4CAILab2ky22lH8bklXUqOA

        Or maybe the plume idea?

        Or maybe just mid-ocean plate boundry spreading dynamics, juxtaposed with a big thick chunk of continental crust on top of it?

      4. I like the idea of a deeper magma chamber as a common source for many of the volcanoes in SE Iceland.

        But what is replenishing and pressurizing the chamber?

        Could be delamination as shown on slide 25 of the following link:

        http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=7&ved=0CEMQFjAG&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dur.ac.uk%2Fg.r.foulger%2FTeaching%2FFrontiers.ppt&ei=41otTtyXCdO00AGv3qzkDg&usg=AFQjCNF1cgt4CAILab2ky22lH8bklXUqOA

        Or maybe the plume idea?

        Or maybe just mid-ocean plate boundry spreading dynamics, juxtaposed with a big thick chunk of continental crust on top of it?

      6. 🙂 …..

        http://www.mantleplumes.org/images3/CartoonHolden20_600.gif

        Philosophers contemplate mantle plumes. From Science Askew.

        http://www.mantleplumes.org/images3/CartoonHolden1_600.jpg

        Drawn by Jack Holden to commemorate the modern resurgence of plume skepticism. (from Vogt, P. R., and J. C. Holden (2007), Plumacy reprise, in Plates, Plumes, and Planetary Processes, edited by G. R. Foulger and D. M. Jurdy, pp. 955-974, Geological Society of America, Boulder, CO.)

  48. please let’s stick to ICELANDIC geology / vulcanology / seismology / temorology. It is fascinating and this blog is an incredibly useful resource.

  49. Yes Mitch you are right but after a year following Jon`s excelent blog it seems to be getting cluttered with junk blogging as if people join the blog and act like there on facebook. Just my view anyway as I am a Geologist and NOT an expert on Icelandic volcano`s. Iceland is VERY unique indeed

    1. I am not going to allow to get cluttered. Traffic is increasing. But so is also commenting on blog posts here.

      It is inevitable by the nature of the internet that people how have there own view of reality comment here. Along with scaremongers and others. It can’t be helped. But I am going to do my best to control it as best that I can.

      Scaremongering serves no purpose at all. It is a waste of time and always has been. I am not going to take part in that type of blog or allow comments to start scaremongering here.

      I want to have this blog as informal and as educational as I can make it. If people do not behave I am going to figure out a way to make them behave. One of the best ways to do so is to require a registration before comments can be posted. But that is the same thing as University Today (http://www.universetoday.com/) had to do because of off-topic and scaremongering commenting.

      So in order to keep this open with no registration required. Please keep this on topic and just about volcanoes, and no scaremongering.

    2. I totally agree, which is why I put my fb details up for anyone interested and would encourage everyone else to do the same for general chat. Forums have a way of becoming quite personal but there is a balance. I really believe Iceland is going to become even more of a focus of research in the coming years, which is why I would really like to see Jons’ blog grow in a positive way.

    1. Sadly both links are in Icelandic, you can try to translate with Google.
      What happens is that sulphur gets up high in the sky, cools the atmosphere (lower by 3 deg. Celsius) and is believed to even affect the river Nile. Benjamin Franklin then ambassador in France described “the thick blue fog that shortened daytime by 3 hours”.

      Eruptions close to the pole seem to affect the weather in world in the summertime more, eruptions closer to the equator affect the weather in the winter too more extent.

      http://esv.blog.is/blog/esv/entry/59166/ and
      http://www.islandia.is/hamfarir/jardfraedilegt/eldgos/skaftareldar.html

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